International Oversight Advisory
The International Oversight Advisory (IOA) is an organization designed and set up by several Earth governments to oversee the Stargate Program and the Atlantis Expedition. It was originally formed as a compromise with Stargate Command Commander Major General Henry Landry, which allowed an international and civilian oversight organization de-facto control in exchange for continued funding. Following the Lucian Alliance attack on Earth and the reformation of the United Nations, the IOA came under the jurisdiction of the UN with its own Secretary-General, and was given an expanded mandate to provide a civilian supervisory body to the Stargate Program. Overview The IOA's jurisdiction gives them the power to give orders to Stargate Command personnel, and recommend or recall personnel from Stargate facilities, though the IOA is often forced to allow operations to proceed how they want. IOA personnel are generally portrayed as arrogant, selfish, greedy, close-minded and xenophobic control-freaks, typically presented as attempting to force the Stargate teams and offworld operations to proceed according to their views and attempting to pass the blame when operations go wrong, most notably when the Atlantis Expedition's experiments with the Wraith Iratus bug retrovirus – leading to the creation of the Human-Wraith Hybrid Michael Kenmore – resulted in the Wraith gaining information about how to reach Earth before the Hive ships were destroyed; Dr. Elizabeth Weir mainly retained her job long enough for the crisis to be dealt with due to the IOA's unwillingness to take personal responsibility for coming up with a plan to stop the Wraith attack, and even then they attempted to arrange an investigation to have her removed for dereliction of duty after the Wraith Hives were defeated. With time, the IOA's leaders became more sympathetic and open-minded to change from the strict policies and directives they force others to enforce. Generally, however, members of the SGC and Atlantis hold the IOA in disdain. A particular example of the IOA's continued arrogance was when they forced Colonel Samantha Carter to 'step down' from her position as Atlantis' commander so that Richard Woolsey could take her place – the IOA apparently reasoning that Woolsey's command policy would be more in line with their own – although Woolsey quickly realized that he couldn't follow the IOA's policies when faced with the normal hazards of life in the Pegasus Galaxy. During the Ori Crusade, the IOA green light a mission to the Ori home galaxy in order to locate the Ark of Truth as well as destroy the Supergate. However, they did not believe the plan would secure victory against the threat Earth faced and ordered James Marrick to use the Asgard computer core to recreate the Replicators in order to unleash them against the Human followers of the Ori. Once the threat had been neutralized, the IOA would initiate a self-destruct code built into the Replicators. However, it grew out of control and the Replicators tried to disable the code only to be shut down. The IOA later apologized to SG-1 for their actions. Lately, the IOA Field Operations Division was set up to centre on combating alien threats on Earth. This has been the most supported IOA decision to date. Component Commands International Oversight Advisory components include: *International Stargate Command (formerly Stargate Command) *Atlantis Expedition (joint with Homeworld Command) *Olympus Expedition (joint with Homeworld Command) *Icarus Project - ''Destiny'' Expedition (joint with Homeworld Command) *Colonia Expedition (joint with Homeworld Command) Staff :Main article: List of International Oversight Advisory personnel Secretary-General The Secretary-General of the International Oversight Advisory is the ranking civilian in charge of the IOA and the Stargate Program and is appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The current Secretary-General is Shen Xiaoyi who assumed the position from Carl Strom in 2013. See Also *Homeworld Command External links * * Category:Tau'ri organizations Category:United Nations